American Cinematographer - May 2008 - (Page 45)

defying cross-country rally known as The Crucible. For director of photography David Tattersall, BSC, the decision to join the Speed Racer team was easy. “When [producer] Grant Hill called me about the project, I said I’d sell my own grandmother to work with the Wachowski brothers,” he recalls wryly. Tattersall’s credits include high-profile digital features such as Star Wars: Episode II (AC Sept. ’01) and III and numerous celluloid projects, including Die Another Day (AC Nov. ’02), The Green Mile (AC Jan. ’00) and Con Air (AC June ’97), and he notes that the format for Speed Racer had not been determined when he came aboard the project. “One of the first questions that arose was whether to shoot on film or dig- itally,” he recalls. “To bring the anime world to life, the Wachowskis wanted something very different — not really a film look, a digital look or even an animated look, but a hybrid of the three. Our goal was a kind of hyper-real look.” Defining that look began last spring, when the filmmakers spent a week onstage shooting comparison tests with a 35mm camera and a number of high-end high-definition (HD) video cameras, including a prototype Sony CineAlta F23 that had just been unveiled. Tattersall recalls, “As we were testing, we talked about what the hyper-real look would be and discussed using superdeep focus and a smooth, grain-free ‘Techno Color’ palette, a kind of exaggerated digital version of Technicolor. Those [qualities] tested out to be more easily achievable with HD than with film.” The F23 seemed uniquely suited to achieving the desired extreme-deep-focus look; the camera’s 2⁄3" CCDs could capture more depth of field than a larger single 35mm-sized chip. Also, Tattersall found the Sony camera to be “very user-friendly with its improved, more rugged and ergonomic design features, and a good choice for the Speed Racer shooting style,” he says. When the team decided to go with the F23, technical adviser Vince Pace of Pace Technologies “moved mountains to make the first five camera bodies off Sony’s production line available for us to use in Berlin,” adds Tattersall. “With the Opposite pages: Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) navigates a candy-colored racetrack at breakneck velocity. Cinematographer David Tattersall, BSC notes that the movie’s directors, Larry and Andy Wachowski, sought a hyperreal look that would reflect the story’s anime roots. This page, top: Armed with binoculars, Trixie (Christina Ricci) cheers on her man. Bottom: Rival driver Taejo Togokahn (Ji Hoon Jung) takes a swing at Speed, only to be thwarted by the fast reflexes of Racer X (Matthew Fox). tk American Cinematographer 45

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - May 2008

American Cinematographer - May 2008 Contents Editor’s Note Global Village: The Fall Short Takes: ASC Laszlo Kovacs Short Takes: Heritage Award Winners Production Slate: Anamorph Production Slate: Fugitive Pieces Heavy-Metal Hero A Need for Speed Kink and the City Beautiful Minds A Hollywood Homecoming Post Focus: Paramount Restores The Godfather Filmmakers’ Forum: Levie Isaacks, ASC Teaches Marines to Shoot Movies New Products & Services International Marketplace Classified Ads Ad Index Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up: Antonio Calvache

American Cinematographer - May 2008

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